Designed with a silhouette you’d expect from a fabric seating device, the Indigo Dyed Chairnby Jin Kuramoto is in fact purely made from bamboo strips. Combining techniques like weaving as well as bending, Kuramoto’s chair looks inviting, and also utilizes a technique alien to bamboo production. Indigo-dying!
A native of Taiwan, Jin used materials that were indigenous to him, combining two unlikely domains to form something that’s subtly unique. The resulting bamboo chair does look spectacular, but even showcases a different hue, thanks to the introduction of indigo to the production process. My arms can’t wait to rest on those armrests!
The LeBitGo is a unique set of hand tools that transforms the way users get things done around the house and in their daily lives. At its core, LeBitGo is a modular set of bits and attachments. Depending on the configuration of these interchangeable pieces, the tool can function as a screwdriver or light-duty hammer. Users can configure the pieces in virtually any formation, making it easier to operate screws in tight spaces and at awkward angles.
After graduating from the Hokkaido Institute of Design, Norio Tanno pursued his chosen field of furniture design. But he quit after just four years, feeling that his work wasn’t original. Instead he turned to creating tiny boxes.
That was around 40 years ago. He now runs Tanno Studio in Hokkaido, which produces small, useful objects of his own design and made from wood. Tanno makes them in batches and documents the processes on his site.
Scissors
USB Stick
Card Case
Crazy Door Lock
What caught my eye most was a photo shot by Kitka Design during a visit to Tanno’s shop. One of the craftsmen there made this puzzle-box-style door lock for a cabinet! The tiny storage drawers “need to be opened in a certain pattern to unlock the larger doors.”
Check out the shop visit here, and see more of Tanno’s stuff here.
For this year’s NYCxDesign, frog partnered with Art Start for the second year in a row to help bring creativity to NYC’s homeless and at-risk youth through their DECKxDESIGN challenge. Following a successful inaugural year focused on dart boards, this year pivoted focus towards a different type of board—the skateboard. frog wanted to push the limits and see what would happen if they asked NYC-based artists and design studios to reimagine the classic, run-of-the-mill skateboard, and the results did not disappoint.
The boards were put on display and made available for auction during a party held at the design firm’s Brooklyn-based headquarters. All funds from the auction benefitted Art Start. Below are some of our favorite boards from the challenge, accompanied by descriptions written by each designer/design team themselves and divided into two categories: Technical and Novelty. Unfortunately, a few of the boards we want to include don’t have photos available, but the one’s we’ve featured here are a solid representation of the results.
Technical
The below boards either have a new form factor we’ve never seen, include clever design details or an interesting use of material.
Inspiration: Ghost Board is inspired by opposites and is designed to cause a double-take. When ridden, the rider would seem to be floating above the ground. The transparent top of the board appears to be quite fragile, but it is actually extremely durable. It is made of polycarbonate: the same material used in bullet proof glass and fighter jet canopies.
Names: Damon Ahola, Ryan Luce, Joey Pasko, Oliver Sheu, Brent Arnold
Job Titles: Design and Engineering team at Motivate / Citi Bike
Materials: Citi Bike aluminum downtube, 3D printed nylon plastic end caps, bike headlight and taillight, aluminum trucks, polyurethane wheels
Inspiration: How can we repurpose a decommissioned Citi Bike?
Inspiration: We wanted to challenge ourselves by creating a fully 3D printed MakerBoard, with no extra materials, that’s still lightweight and sturdy enough to ride.
Materials: 100% HDPE plastic waste found along the coastline beaches near NYC
Inspiration: After surfing following a rainstorm that had washed up a disturbing amount of trash onto the beach, I wanted to make this board using the waste polluting our oceans and beaches and think more about creating meaningful and functional products succeeding the materials in their virgin form.
While visiting a friend at Machinehistories and discussing a few ideas, he showed me an experimental process they were using of shredding and compressing materials under high heat to create new forms and patterns. We used Precious Plastic‘s free blueprints to build the grinder, and after refining the process, we were able to make this skateboard deck solely from waste collected off a few beaches. This process allows every board to be a one-of-a-kind piece showcasing a new wonderful mingling of color, pattern and history. May you shred on this board filled with infinite colors, shades, patterns and past lives.
Under the bridge In a dark hidden corner Lots of you Thriving on the cold hard concretes This is your spot Where you start and spread little by little No matter what others think of you
Name: Daniel Venegas Production: Joel Medina + Gerard Sambets
Job Title: Associate Creative Director at Epic Signal x Mekanism
Materials: Plexiglass, glycerin, glitter, metal brackets
Inspiration: The inspiration was the airwalk trick in skateboarding where in mid-air a skater holds the nose of the board and kicks out their feet to appear like they are walking on air. Who’s better at walking on air or water for that matter than Jesus? These elements came together in this transparent skateboard along with a baby Jesus to provide riders with the ultimate airwalk.
In the picture I am boring a pretty big hole. Pulling the handle of the brace towards or against me is pretty easy, but rotating the handle from left to right when the handle is far way from me is a different story. With my arm outstretched, moving from left to right, I have no leverage, and very little strength. On a small hole this isn’t a big deal, but I struggle with larger diameters.
The solution, with a common American ratcheting brace, is to use the ratchet. Instead of trying to move the handle in complete circles and having no power for the left to right parts of the stroke, I just ratchet the brace forward and back, on the part of the stroke where I have the most arm strength.
In this manner, drilling a big wide hole becomes pretty darn easy and quick. I think this is one reason why American style ratcheting braces became, in the late 19th century, so popular worldwide and drove the English ultimatum brace out of production before World War One.
In the picture the green lines show the back and forth part of the powerful part of the stroke where I am ratcheting away, and the red line shows where you have very, very little arm strength by comparison.
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This “Tools & Craft” section is provided courtesy of Joel Moskowitz, founder of Tools for Working Wood, the Brooklyn-based catalog retailer of everything from hand tools to Festool; check out their online shop here. Joel also founded Gramercy Tools, the award-winning boutique manufacturer of hand tools made the old-fashioned way: Built to work and built to last.
Amnesty International has joined forces with custom, no-waste brand Everpress and 50 artists in order to create a collection of T-shirts that explore the concept of censorship. Designers, illustrators, photographers, cartoonists and more are taking……
With numerous magnetizing uses of IDLES’ frontman Joe Talbot (and his head), the video for “COLOSSUS” twists and turns in tandem with the remarkable and punkish track—which aims to tackle toxic masculinity. Powerful throughout, the song splits musically……
The practice of “cruising” is changing the way that buildings are designed, according to the curators of a Venice Architecture Biennale exhibition that brings together sex and architecture.
Featuring a flatpack maze containing a glory hole, and artefacts from famously secretive Berlin nightclub Berghain, the Cruising Pavilion explores the subversive architecture of, and architectures subverted by, casual sex.
The Cruising Pavilion explores the subversive architecture of, and architectures subverted by, casual sex
The term cruising refers to the practice of moving through a space to find a casual, sometimes anonymous, sexual partner.
According to exhibition curators Pierre-Alexandre Mateos, Rasmus Myrup, Octave Perrault and Charles Teyssou, cruising has shaped the design of numerous types of buildings and spaces, from public toilets and parks, to bathhouses and nightclubs.
“Cruising is a topic that is present in architecture, but is always latent or silenced, or never expressed fully,” Perrault told Dezeen.
The space is dark and lit only by atmospheric red lamps
However the group claim that the historical model of cruising is “evolving and perhaps even dying”, and that sex is starting to impact other types of architecture. For instance, the use of dating app Grindr is moving sex out of gay bars and into contemporary condos.
They are calling for architects to embrace this culture, rather than trying to sanitise or expunge sex from building design, but also to respect its secretive nature.
“I think it’s a very ambiguous position to occupy,” said Perrault. “Homophobia and homophobic crimes are far from being a thing of the past. The secrecy and the in-articulation are ways to protect practices that are still very de-legitimised and still at the core of very vivid political tensions.”
Exhibits including The Helping Hand by Trevor Yeung, which releases eucalyptus oil – to mask the smell of sex – into the air
The Cruising Pavilion is taking over arts space Spazio Punch, on Venetian island Giudecca, for the duration of the biennale.
Responding to the biennale title Freespace, the exhibition uses a range of unusual exhibits to celebrate recent examples of architecture that have allowed partners – both homosexual and otherwise – to find sexual freedom in public places.
It also focuses on how the practice has been impacted by the digital age.
Prem Sahib’s photo series captures London gay sauna Chariots, before it was destroyed to make way for new residential developments
Visitors enter a series of dark spaces lit dimly with red lamps, and have to climb flights of wooden stairs to ascend two towers that have been constructed within the space. Here, art pieces are pinned or pasted to walls, projected on screens or found on floors.
A piece by artist Trevor Yeung perfumes the air. His work, called The Helping Hand, is a misting machine of the kind typically used to keep reptile tanks moist, but for this occasion it is filled with eucalyptus oil to recreate the scents used in gay bathhouses to cover the sent of sex, sweat and bodily emissions.
Swallow, Pump and Choke are scanned and printed pencil drawings by Alison Veit, who imagines a fantasy club for women to cruise for other women, while a series of photos by Prem Sahib shows the taking apart of gay bathhouse Chariots in east London, ahead of residential developers moving in.
Printed silk scarves by Lili Reynaud Dewar litter the floor, along with used condoms
Also on display is artist Andreas Angelidakis‘ Cruising Labyrinth, an “IKEA-style” flatpack comprising panels of prefabricated black-painted plywood that can be arranged by the user to create a maze leading to the pinnacle of anonymous sex, the glory hole.
In the space between the two platforms, the floor is strewn with “used” condoms and silk scarves that have been printed with texts that explore themes of intimacy, prophylaxis and contagion by artist Lili Reynaud Dewar.
Berlin cruising nightclub Berghain refuses to allow photos or release plans, so a lamp used in its interiors is displayed instead
German architecture practice Studio Karhard has chosen to display a lighting fixture designed by Dominique Perrault and manufacturer Sammode, which is used in Berlin’s Berghain.
The studio had originally intended to show the architectural plans of the infamous cruising spot, but the club is so fiercely protective of its punters’ privacy that, along with a no-photos policy, it also refuses to release drawings of the building.
The maze-like layout of the exhibition space reflects the labyrinth as both an architectural tool found in cruising spots such as nightclubs and gardens, and a metaphor for the hidden nature of the activities that take place inside them.
Andreas Angelidakis flatpack glory-hole maze allows you to chose your own sexual adventure
“For me, the labyrinth is a device that can be protective and an escape from heteronormativity,” said Perrault.
“It is particularly interesting because, for basically the last 200 or 300 years of architecture, the maze was to be avoided as a form linked to immorality,” he explained. “Everything had to be ordered, placed, named, oriented, because that’s what made the city safe, controllable, surveilled, efficient and productive.”
Embracing labyrinthine layouts then becomes a radical act, inspiring “architecture that is not only about constructing gender and relationships, but actually liberating”.
Crusing Pavilion is open at Spazio Punch until July 2018
The Cruising Pavilion is open at Spazio Punch until 1 July 2018. Guests at the opening party were offered poppers and condoms along with their champagne.
Dezeen promotion: Sou Fujimoto and OMA’s Reinier de Graaf will be among the speakers at reSITE 2018, an annual international forum showcasing better solutions for the urbanised world.
Taking place from 14–15 June 2018 in Prague’s Forum Karlin, the annual summit will celebrate thepositive impact that inspiring design and development can have on the quality of life in cities.
The event will see 50 international speakers from the architecture, design, economic and innovation sectors come together to focus on high-quality housing and quality of life.
The event will take place from 14–15 June 2018 in Prague’s Forum Karlin
The programme is focused on the question: Is it time to reconsider what a better city looks like? It will include talks on large scale urbanism and residential projects, as well as the American Dream. Dezeen is a media partner for the event.
Along with de Graaf and Fujimoto, other speakers taking part in the two-day event include Michel Rojkind, founder of Rojkind Arquitectos, Dara Huang, founder of Design Haus Liberty and Richard Burdett, professor of urban studies at the London School of Economics.
Dara Huang, founder of Design Haus Liberty, is one of the speakers
Dezeen’s co-founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs and Rob Bole general manager of Citylab, will moderate a panel of innovators featuring Dan Hill, the global digital studio leader at Arup, Indy Johar, the founder of Dark Matter Labs, and Christine Nieves, co-director and chief of imagination at Proyecto Apoyo Mutuo Mariana.
The programme also includes a presentation of Elevation, Dezeen’s documentary on how drones will change our cities.
Dezeen is presenting Elevation, a film about how drones will change cities
Architects, urbanists, planners, designers, municipal leaders, politicians, developers, researchers, teachers, students, media, cultural leaders, curators, non-profit organizations and activists are all welcome at the two-day event.
There is a with a huge discount for students and several options for professionals.
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